Major Learning Outcomes for the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures Major
The student develops their knowledge of fundamental concepts in the fields of Hispanic and Applied Linguistics, and is able to apply them in the completion of research papers and data-driven research studies pertaining to current issues in these areas
The student completes four courses related to the Spanish language and Hispanic and/or Applied Linguistics. These courses deal with: the history of Spanish, advanced grammar, Spanish-English translation, a general introduction to Spanish linguistics and second language acquisition, Spanish for professional application (medical, legal, etc. spheres), composition and conversation, and bilingualism.
The student completes four courses related to the Spanish language and Hispanic and/or Applied Linguistics. These courses deal with: the history of Spanish, advanced grammar, Spanish-English translation, a general introduction to Spanish linguistics and second language acquisition, Spanish for professional application (medical, legal, etc. spheres), composition and conversation, and bilingualism.
Reflective Narrative
Applied linguistics is an essential part of understanding the relationship between the way we speak and how we are perceived by others and ourselves. For this major learning outcome, students dive into the structure of the language to break it down, and examine each aspect of it to comprehend its function and purpose in different social contexts. The completion of this MLO helped me to better understand myself through the linguistic practices I perform, acknowledge the “rules” that make up language, and appreciate the dialectal variations that exist in the Hispanic world.
In SPAN 303: Advanced Spanish Grammar, I learned the difference between prescriptive and descriptive linguistics, an important distinction necessary to identify negative or problematic comments that we can make when judging a person's way of speaking, and how these can be connected to larger social problems such as classism and racism. For this class, in teams we completed a research project on the speech of the singer "Pitbull". In this essay, we identify the artist's linguistic practices by classifying the changes he makes when speaking and connecting the phenomena with the definitions we learned in class. Our purpose was to raise awareness about the variations that do not belong to the prescriptive grammar, to include and validate these different forms of communication that exist in the Spanish-speaking world. From SPAN 345: Bilingualism in the Spanish Speaking World, I learned what it means to be a bilingual person, and what characteristics are taken into account to be considered as such. While it can usually be considered that a bilingual person can speak, read and write two languages perfectly, the reality is that we must see bilingualism as a variety of linguistic abilities where language proficiency is subjective according to the context in which the person lives. Thanks to this new perspective on bilingualism, I was able to write a paper about the bilingual profile of the Salinas Valley, where I pointed out the failures in the educational system that do not recognize the linguistic contexts of the inhabitants of the area, to seek solutions that will allow immigrants and their descendants to preserve their mother tongue.
Before taking these courses, I didn't realize how problematic it could be to correct a person's way of speaking. I used to believe that standard Spanish, the one I learned in class in the prescriptive way, should be spoken verbatim, as it appears in the dictionaries and books provided by the institutions that "guard" the language. But thanks to my professor Dr. Rebecca Pozzi, I have learned to question my own comments of prescriptivist origin and change that perspective for a more comprehensive one of linguistic diversity, and I will encourage others to recognize this problematic way of thinking to change it.
In SPAN 303: Advanced Spanish Grammar, I learned the difference between prescriptive and descriptive linguistics, an important distinction necessary to identify negative or problematic comments that we can make when judging a person's way of speaking, and how these can be connected to larger social problems such as classism and racism. For this class, in teams we completed a research project on the speech of the singer "Pitbull". In this essay, we identify the artist's linguistic practices by classifying the changes he makes when speaking and connecting the phenomena with the definitions we learned in class. Our purpose was to raise awareness about the variations that do not belong to the prescriptive grammar, to include and validate these different forms of communication that exist in the Spanish-speaking world. From SPAN 345: Bilingualism in the Spanish Speaking World, I learned what it means to be a bilingual person, and what characteristics are taken into account to be considered as such. While it can usually be considered that a bilingual person can speak, read and write two languages perfectly, the reality is that we must see bilingualism as a variety of linguistic abilities where language proficiency is subjective according to the context in which the person lives. Thanks to this new perspective on bilingualism, I was able to write a paper about the bilingual profile of the Salinas Valley, where I pointed out the failures in the educational system that do not recognize the linguistic contexts of the inhabitants of the area, to seek solutions that will allow immigrants and their descendants to preserve their mother tongue.
Before taking these courses, I didn't realize how problematic it could be to correct a person's way of speaking. I used to believe that standard Spanish, the one I learned in class in the prescriptive way, should be spoken verbatim, as it appears in the dictionaries and books provided by the institutions that "guard" the language. But thanks to my professor Dr. Rebecca Pozzi, I have learned to question my own comments of prescriptivist origin and change that perspective for a more comprehensive one of linguistic diversity, and I will encourage others to recognize this problematic way of thinking to change it.